Book Review
of Dangerous Shift Sponsored by Bewitching Book Tours
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Dangerous
Shift
By Jill James
By Jill James
Genre: paranormal romantic suspense
ISBN: 9781476499673
ASIN: B008RDPN72
Number of pages: 222
Word Count: 76,000
Cover Artist: Elaina Lee, For The Muse Designs
Blurb
:
HE IS MR. BY-THE-BOOK, WITH A SECRET...
Shape shifters live among us but remain unknown to
most people except for the highest echelons of law enforcement, the military,
science, and medical fields—until now.
SHE IS A LOOSE CANNON WITH AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM...
When a fatal virus strikes Shape shifters all over
the West coast, including members of the Shape shifter Task Force in San Laura,
California, reinforcements are called in from around the United States.
TOGETHER, THEY JUST MIGHT CATCH A KILLER
Lt. Nikki Hill of Missouri comes to San Laura and is partnered up with
Lt. Sean Evans. They quickly butt heads on everything from proper police
procedures to the moral ethics of euthanasia. They can’t seem to get a lead on
the serial killer even as members of their own families are stricken with the
virus. In their grief they turn to each other and hope they have time to
discover if their relationship stands a chance or if they might just be the
next victims of the species extinction disease.
About the
Author:
Jill James didn’t start out wanting to be an author.
Along the way she wanted to be an astronaut, President of the United States, a
lawyer, and a doctor. Once married with children she realized she could be all
those things in the pages of the stories she wrote.
She lives in Northern California with her husband,
who is the inspiration for all her romance novel heroes.
Contacts:
Excerpt:
Prologue
Fort San Laura Army Base
San Laura, California
May 2017
Sean Evans turned away as tears rolled
down his ex-partner Colin Rodriguez’s face. The man sat by his fiancée’s
bedside, her hand clasped in his, waiting for her to die. The sound of boot
heels echoed up and down the hospital corridor. All marched past the closed
door, none brave enough to stop at this room.
Sean stared at the dying woman.
Paulette’s red hair was the only color in the monochrome-toned hospital room.
Colin’s hand shook as he brushed the hair back from Paulette’s sweaty face. The
virus wreaked havoc on the young woman.
Sean swallowed bile rising in his throat
as the young Shapeshifter in the bed screamed. Her flesh boiled, roiling
beneath the surface, and she screamed again. Her back arched off the bed. For
months now, the Shapeshifter Task Force had been working to track down the
cause of the virus and it struck close to home, killing two of their own.
First, his own partner, Barry, and now, Paulette.
Her fingers turned into talons that dug
into Colin’s hand. Blood dripped from the cuts onto the crisp, white sheet.
Colin held her hand; the only sign of his pain was the grimace on his tanned
face.
Sean rubbed his burning eyes, surprised
to find tears on his own cheeks. He scrubbed the wetness away and raked his
fingers through his hair. His tears wouldn’t help Paulette or Colin. Nothing
could help them now. His hands clenched into fists at his side. He ached to
punch a wall, anything to kill the tension in the room.
A scream built in his throat. Just last
week he had sat here, forced to watch the young man, new to the task force,
breathe his last. He stared into the ceiling lights, his eyes watered with the
brightness. He repeated his personal mantra of calm and cool until his emotions mellowed, until they no longer
threatened to overwhelm him.
He turned his head back as Paulette’s
screams died down to whimpers. She had lost all control of her shifting. She
grew fur and it disappeared. Her head changed shape as she shifted into a
canine form, then a feline form, then back to her own. Her limbs flopped
against the mattress as she convulsed. The shifting now happened every few
seconds.
Colin threw himself across her body as
if he could stop the tragedy from its conclusion.
“Noooo.” His voice ricocheted across the
room and down the hall.
Sean rushed to his best friend’s side
and ripped him up off of the dying Shifter. No one had discovered yet how the
virus was transmitted. They didn’t need masks and gloves anymore, not in the
last several months at least, but no one wanted to find out what full-body contact
might do.
Colin struggled against Sean’s hold.
Tears blurred Sean’s vision as Paulette struggled to breathe, and Colin’s cries
became anguished sobs. His shoulders shook under Sean’s hands.
The monitor blared as Sean searched
Paulette for any life signs and found none. Her chest didn’t move. She was
gone. Just like Barry. Just like all the other Shifters in the past few months.
Sean turned away as Paulette’s flesh
jellified and sank into the mattress, only a slight bump under the covers to
show a living being had been there.
Colin’s anguish pierced his soul, and
when Colin threw himself across the bed again.
Sean didn’t bother to stop him.
What did it matter when his friend had just lost his partner and the
love of his life?
The sounds of harsh breaths and sobs
still echoed in Sean’s ears when the door opened and the Captain of the Task
Force rushed in. Sean turned to the man and shook his head.
Captain Connors motioned for Sean to
talk to him outside. Sean shot a quick look to Colin and followed the captain
outside to the hallway.
“Lieutenant Evans, with Robertson’s
death today, added to the others, the task force is low on numbers. We will
need to send word to the other task forces and ask for reinforcements.”
Sean’s hands formed into fists at his side.
The human captain made no bones about his dislike of Shape shifters, but
Paulette’s body wasn’t even cold yet and he drudged up business decisions.
He took deep breaths and relaxed his
hands. As the Lead Lieutenant in the task force, business took priority. Even
over death.
“Will you send a request to the
Southwest office in Las Vegas?” Their own task force office covered the
Northwest—Northern California, part of Nevada, and all of Oregon, Washington
state, and Idaho.
The captain shook his
head. “A few cases have been reported in Los Angeles. We can’t risk it. I’ll
request someone from the Midwest. No cases have been reported yet out there.
There is a small task force in Columbia, Missouri, an hour outside St. Louis.”
Book Review:
Very interesting and unique concept
of shifters. I don’t think I’ve ever
read a book quite like this one. The
author based the idea on Jurassic Park and the idea that while the scientists
made all the dinosaurs female so that they could not reproduce, but nature
adapted to fix that issue. These
shifters have dominate and non-dominate personality and these personalities are
of opposite genders. So if your dominate
personality was female and so was your sisters, you would also be a brother and
have a brother who were the opposite of your female counterpart. Okay, my explanation was totally confusing,
even to me, but in the book it is clear and presented in a well thought out
manner.
There is also the love story and the
paranormal concept of one true love or mate, but that you could be happy with
someone else. Just very intriguing ideas
that I haven’t seen in other shifter stories.
Very well written and interesting story idea.
I give this story 4 out of 5 clouds.
This
product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my
opinions or reviews.
